Shredit Card

Credit cards come and go, but when they go, it’s usually our job to make sure they do. Most people just cut the card in half and drop it in the trash. If you do so too, that could be a costly mistake. The magnetic stripe on the credit card can be quite easily read even if the card is cut, not to mention the card’s number, expiration and CVV. If you don’t want the guy who finds it in the trash to go on a spending spree on you, here’s some better way of getting rid of the card.

Ideally, a card shredding machine, such as the one banks have, would be great, but those are too expensive for the home user. Many regular SOHO shredders can also shred credit cards, and that’s good too. If, however, you don’t have one, or prefer manual control over this, I suggest this simple technique from the kitchen.

The idea is similar to how you chop onions. 1st, use scissors to do multiple cuts in the card from top to bottom, but not all the way. You would end up with a sort-of “comb” pattern. Then, use the scissors to cut the card multiple times from left to right, so that the card shreds to small pieces. I strongly recommend doing the 2nd stage above a trashcan, as the cut pieces can fly. Here it is in pictures:

If you want to add one more layer of security to all this, you might want to spread the pieces between several trash bags, or better yet – take half of the debris and dump it somewhere completely different, like at the office or at school. Congrats! You’re safe!

Ambiance

A few decades ago, someone discovered an interesting fact – placing a light source behind or to the side of a TV enhances the viewing experience significantly. I’m sure there’s some interesting explanation for this, but I’ve experienced it myself, and I can attest to its truthfulness. Philips, the well known Dutch electronics company, is also on to it, and a few years ago developed a line of televisions with what they call “Ambilight”. This is based on a special light source that’s embedded in the TV’s side, and lights the wall behind the TV. The Ambilight TVs cost a pretty penny, of course, but you can have a similar effect for much cheaper, and without replacing the TV.

The trick is simple – buy a set of two elongated light sources, like a small CCFL (Fluorescent) lamp, and hang them behind the TV so that they are pointing towards the wall. A better option is a LED-based light, which you can buy at your local store for around 15$ per light. With most TVs, you can use double-sided tape to stick it behind the TV. Other sets will allow other arrangement, like screwing the light on the back at the proper height, or even hanging the light from one of the screws on the TVs back. The technique is not that important, as long as the light is pointing towards the wall.

In my case, this is the way my TV looks now:



One thing still makes the Philips TVs a little better than my $30 setup...their ambilight actually changes color based on the content displayed onscreen. Is that worth it...you be the judge.

Move your S

This week’s post is dedicated to tips and tricks about moving…a topic I’m handling this week as I’m moving myself.

Now is a particularly good time to move, as market prices have dropped by as much as %35, but many home owners and apartment managers rely on your laziness (to scope the market or to suffer the agonizing task of moving) and will not reduce the rent significantly for lease renewals. It often requires you to file an intent-to-not-renew notice to get them to crack, but I say that you should just send the letter, and look for a new place anyway. My wife and I have been living in a 1300 Sq Ft apartment, and now for the exact same price, we are getting a 2500 Sq Ft house, less than ½ a mile from where we are now.

Assuming you are moving indeed, the 1st thing you’re going to need is a moving company. Even if you can carry most of your stuff by yourself, you would probably still need help carrying the couch, cabinets and your books. Make sure you have an estimator from the moving company come look at the place before the move, and don’t rely on your own estimates. If you get too few movers on the job because you forgot to consider the stuff in the garage, not only will you end up paying more, but the movers will work more, be tired, and more likely to break things. Also, it’s very important to schedule the move as the 1st job in the morning, and preferably on the 1st day of the week. That will guarantee that the carriers will be as fresh, strong and alert as possible.

You would need boxes for your stuff. It’s not always easy to estimate how many you’ll need, so if you had a moving company estimator come in, you might consult him/her, but don’t wait too long – you should start packing the non-essentials a month ahead of the move. You might find free moving boxes from your colleagues at work, if you’re lucky, and you should also ask your I.T. group – they often store the boxes computers come in. If not, this website offers an interesting service: http://www.freecardboardboxes.com/ . You open an account, and can give or get free boxes from others. If this does not work out, the two other best options are buying the boxes from u-Haul or Home Depot. I’ve found that Home depot are the cheapest – less than 1$ per medium box. U-Haul sell the same box for 2.35$, but they also promise to buy the boxes back from you. I don’t know how much they pay back, but I doubt it will come down to cheaper than Home Depot. Some moving companies will sell you boxes at reasonable rates, and some might even give them for free, so that’s worth checking out too.

Another thing that’s very important is to mark the boxes, so the carriers know where to put them. Most people write on the box with a felt-tip pen, but that’s the hard way. U-Haul also sells packing tape with room names printed on them – they have Living room, Bedroom, Kitchen, Family Room, Storage, Bathroom and a few others, and even a “fragile” tape. The tape sells for $2 a role that has 30 yards. They intend for you to use the tape to close the boxes off, but I recommend getting a tape-dispenser gun at the USPS (cheap, high quality tape) and cut single words off the u-Haul tape. I tape the room name once on every side of each box, and so a 2$ role will cover about 60 boxes. When you do make your boxes, make sure you prepare several “open first” boxes. The last thing you need is to have to start hunting for a screwdriver, a towel or a coat through 100 boxes. Also, get a floor plan of the new place, and carefully plan where you plan to put the major things. Designate the target location for every piece of furniture, and mark them clearly. The point of this is to prevent a situation where the carriers placed the sofa in your family room, and you have no way of carrying it to the living room without hiring more help. You can, of course, try to be around and tell them what to do, but if there are 2 of you, and 4 of them, that might be confusing and frustrating.

If the boxes you have a lattened out, as most come, there’s not much point in running multiple lines of tape under the main seam, but it’s important to run two cross lines at the bottom left and right of the box. This is what gives the box it’s tensile strength, and especially so for heavy items such as books.

Another thing that might come in handy is a moving dolly, which lets you carry around 2-4 boxes in each go instead of one, and saves some back pain as well. U-Haul will rent you a dolly for 7$ a day, but keep in mind that you can buy a new basic dolly for about $30 (http://www.amazon.com/Magna-Cart-Personal-Hand-Truck/dp/B000HVVSDU). The above link is a folding dolly which you can keep around the house for later on. This could be a good investment.

Happy moving!

Pens envy

How about this unique pen holder for your desk?

This requires very little work, really – the pen plastic holder piece can be found in places like Michaels, or you can just buy a cheap desktop holder and take it apart. The processor I’m using is an original Pentium Pro, which can be found on eBay for less than $20 (personally, I would have thought they would be cheaper nowadays), but any other processor can be used. The advantage of the Pentium Pro in this case is that it’s quite heavy and holds the pen nice and stable, but you can use any other CPU, and if it’s too light, you can just glue it to a piece of wood, glass or metal.

The next step is to just glue the pen holder to the processor, and you’re done!

Telemarket THIS

Telemarket THISWe all hate telemarketing, don’t we? I hate them too, and thankfully, I don’t hear them a lot around here. However, there used to be a time where some newspaper that I was subscribed to nagged me almost weekly, trying to get me to re-subscribe. When all my requests to be removed were ignored, I decided to take a more aggressive tactic.

Here’s the trick: When you pick up the phone, and someone asks for or your spouse by NAME, don’t confirm or transfer. Ask “who is this, please?” Even the slimiest telemarketers will answer truthfully to this. At this point, don’t just ask to be removed…give them a reason that will get them running. It might be something appropriate, if you’re a good improviser. For example, if they are offering you a TV or newspaper subscription, tell them that you have suffered an accident and have gone blind. If it’s a phone company, tell them that you’re the person’s brother/son/caretaker and that the person cannot answer the phone because his ears were injured and he is now deaf. If you just want to make it quick, tell’em the person is dead. Killed in a car crash works well. Make sure to stress how painful it is and ask the telemarketer “Can you imagine how such an offer makes us feel at this time? Please don’t call back”. Make sure you repeat their name – most of them will be scared of a lawsuit and will take you off the list right away. Don’t overdo it, by the way. Don’t go into details, so they won’t think it’s a prank or a shake-off.

Speaking of aggressive marketing – many companies will sell your address to just about anybody. In fact, many of them will lure you in with free gifts or very cheap merchandise, just to get an address. A big customer list is an expensive thing and selling your address to multiple buyers is a good and steady income. Well, other than being paranoid and not giving the address, of course, there’s one more technique I often use.

When I do need to give an address – I add a little extension to my last name, to link it to this business. For example, if make an online purchase at Jimmy’s Flower’s, I’ll list my name as “Erez Ben Arijf”. The JF at the end signify “Jimmy’s Flowers”. It won’t interfere with the mail delivery, but if, at a later time, I get a letter from another company, I’ll know exactly who sold them my address. If I can do something about it is uncertain – that depends on local laws and things you might have agreed to when signing up originally, but at least you’ll know. It’s a good idea, of course, to keep track of these addresses, as you might forget what BS stands for in a year.

A similar idea is for Email subscriptions. Since free accounts are a common thing, you can create a new account whenever you need to provide your Email, and set it to forward to your day-to-day account. If you start receiving spam, you can see it was forwarded from the Email headers, and stop the forwarding from that account. You should also use an address from www.mailinator.com wherever possible. Mailinator is a service that receives mail to ANY box at @mailinator.com and saves it for a short time. It’s good when you need to give SOME email, and works well for a single-time use, like when making an online order.

Give’em some credit

Knives come in all shapes and sizes, but this recipe is for an unusual one – a knife concealed as a credit card. In the movie Glimmer Man, noted martial artist Steven Segal used one to surprise-attack a group of mobsters. Such a knife is not really hard to do, just be careful about carrying it in your wallet. If it gets picked up by the airport scanners, you could get in trouble.

1) Get 3 cards – 1 normal credit card (preferably expired), one card that is not a credit card (because they are not flat), but has a magnetic stripe on the back, and a 3rd card that is of the same size, but does not have to have any markings (could be an old drivers license or company keycard, for example)



2) Get a snap-knife blade of the slim type (also known as a “Japanese Knife” blade).



3) Cut the 3rd card to shape as is illustrated in the image. The idea is that the hole in the blade will be secured using an axle and when rotated, will protrude down about ½ of an inch.




4) Cut the bottom card (no. 2) as is illustrated in the image. This hole will be used to extend the knife, and hold it in place.




5) Cut a hole in the 1st and 3rd cards, about 1/16” wide. Try to make the holes exactly above each other. This will be used to hold the axle that holds the blade in place.

6) Using simple contact glue, glue the bottom card (no. 3) to the middle shape (card no.2). Try to make the gluing as clean as possible, with no glue traces on the contour lines.

7) Place the blade in the cavity that’s in the 2nd card.





8) Glue the top card (no.2) to the middle one, and again – try to make it clean.

9) Use a piece of soft plastic as the axle, and insert it through the top hole, the blade’s hole, and the bottom hole.

10) Cut the axle so that it protrudes only about 1/16” to each side.

11) Using something hot, push on the axle’s ends, and flatten them. This can be done with a soldering iron, but works just as well with a large nail’s head, heated over the stove-top. Ideally, the outcome will be an H shaped axle, as flat as possible on the credit card.

12) Now, use your finger to push out the blade and hold it in place. Practice extending it quickly and holding it steady. Keep in mind that the blade is really sharp, and if you keep the knife in your pocket or wallet, it has no safety and can extend and cut the wallet or wound you.

Hold my hand

I’ve already discussed 3D photography on my last entry here, but this time I want to talk a little more about making things easier. The trick to 3D photography is taking two pictures, with the camera a certain distance apart in each one. If your hands are stable, you can just snap one and move the camera, but a better option is to use some sort of camera mount to help you along. Using some simple items from the Lowe’s, you can build a special camera slide for 3D shooting for less than $20. Here’s how.

The main component is a ball-bearing drawer slides. By attaching a pair of cameras to a slide, you can easily move the cameras in parallel. My slide mount was built using a D806 16” slides, which sell for around 12$ in hardware stores. You will also need some 3/8” thick wood, some tee-nuts and “key” screws, a flat metal attachment plate, as well as some other smaller screws.

1) Attach the thin part of the 1st slide to the 2nd using small nuts and bolts. The nuts and bolts should be small, so as to not interfere with the closing of the slides. This essentially creates a single slider that can be extended from 16” to 47.5”.



1) Saw the 3/8” thick wood into 3 pieces – 2 of them about 4” long each, and a 3rd about 2.5”. The ideal width of the board is about 2.5”, but that does not have to be exact. The longer pieces will hold to cameras to the slide, and the 3rd will hold the slide to a regular tripod.
2) Attach one of the two long wood pieces (Approx 4” long) to the slide, using small wood-screws.




3) Bend the metal attachment plate to a U-shape, roughly 1.5” wide. This piece will attach the 2nd camera to the bottom part of the slider.
4) Using small nuts and bolts, attach the plate to the bottom slider, at about the 5”-6” of its length.
5) Attach the 2nd long wood pieces to the U-shaped attachment plate. Ideally, the wood pieces should be touching each other when the slide is in a closed position.



6) Drill a ¼” hold in each wood plate, through which you will insert the key-screws and attach the cameras to the slides. You can use basically any ¼” screw for this, but key-type screws will allow you to attach and remove the cameras at will without using tools. You will also have to use a thicker drill-bit, about 6/16”, and widen the bottom-part of the hole, to allow the key-screw to get in a little more; otherwise it will not be able to reach the camera. It needs to protrude above the upper surface of the wood piece for about 2/16”-3/16”. The location of the hole would be in accordance with your cameras, in order to place them in the middle of the board. This does not have to be exact. In my setup, the screw hole is at the back-side of the wood, so the entry point is at the back, allowing me easy access to remove the cameras.




7) Drill a similar hole in the smaller wooden piece, exactly in the middle, and hammer-in a “tee nut”. If you have chosen too-soft wood, it might buckle under the pressure, as the slides can be quite heavy. Turn the wood up-side-down, and attach it to the bottom of the slide. Make sure the tee-nut is hammered in at the TOP of the piece of wood, as it is supposed to be supported by the wood against the pressure from the tripod screw. The screws that attach it to the slide need to be strong, so as to not get pulled out by the weight of it all. In fact, when the slide is fully extended, it will be much heavier on one side, so support it with your hand, or another tripod to make sure it doesn’t fall apart. In fact, make sure your tripod is sturdy and heavy in the 1st place.





To use this, an ideal setup would include two identical cameras, and you would pull them apart on the slide to a distance that’s 1/30 of the distance from the camera to the closest object seen in the photo. Pressing both shutters simultaneously is key to getting a good picture for moving things like people, animals or traffic.